


a cookie cutter courtship (or so you'd think)

by pretense



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cookies, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Meet-Cute, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 09:45:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13164345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretense/pseuds/pretense
Summary: Leaving home for college had been Percy’s dream. It means having his own space, his own decors and rules. Coincidentally, it’s also his mother’s worst nightmare.





	a cookie cutter courtship (or so you'd think)

**Author's Note:**

> This is for [Alexis](https://lexbot97.tumblr.com/) who's been super nice~  
> I've missed Lukercy so much so I made this little thing to see if I still got it C:

Leaving home for college had been Percy’s dream. It means having his own space, his own decors and rules. It means no more curfew and a place for his friends to converge and have movie marathons with overflowing popcorn. It means cookies for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, with no one to frown on his life decisions. Coincidentally, it’s also his mother’s worst nightmare.

But in her heart of hearts, Sally knows that Percy has been longing for that sense of independence. He studied hard to get into his University of choice; swim team scholarship offers non-withstanding. So yes, Sally is proud of him and while she may shed a few tears, she wants Percy to know that he has her full support.

Percy’s first order of business upon moving in (once he has unpacked everything) is to get groceries. There’s a decently sized convenience store around the block of his apartment building and it’s not very crowded on a Monday afternoon. Percy gets cereal, skim milk, chips, energy bars, too, for those rushing-to-his-7-am-class types of days. He’s got everything on his checklist when he decides to slip into the biscuit aisle.

A little known fact about Percy (for those that haven’t grown up with him, anyway) is that the teen _loves_ gorging himself on chocolate chip cookies. Blue ones, to be exact. His mother’s own recipe. One downside to moving out, then, is that Percy won’t have a steady supply of homemade blue-dyed chocolate chip cookies. Just thinking of the sweet treat now makes Percy’s stomach rumble, even if he did just finish having lunch.

The shelves are lined with all types of biscuits – butter cookies (meh), oatmeal cookies (so-and-so), raisin oatmeal (oh hell no), peanut butter (…maybe), Oreos (not today), animal crackers (what is he, five?) – then Percy reaches the end of the aisle. He blinks. That can’t be right. He doubles back and looks at the shelves more carefully. Still no chocolate chip cookies. What the hell kind of convenience store _doesn’t have_ chocolate chip cookies? Percy even bends his knees to look at the bottom shelves but no dice. _Damn_.

Straightening up, Percy dusts imaginary lint off his pants. This can’t be happening – oh. He stops, green eyes caught on something on the top shelf. Could it be? Percy dares to hope, taking a few steps back so he can see the label. _Chocolate chip cookies! Yes, yes, yes!_

Percy moves in, extending his hand to grab the last box and then – nothing. His hand touches the edge of the top shelf, feeling the cold metal, but he can’t get a grip on the box. Settling back on his heels, Percy puffs out his cheeks. He’s not short, not really, he can totally reach that box. Standing on his tip toes, Percy tries again, and this time the tips of his fingers make contact. _Yes_ , he cheers internally, but when attempts to grab it, _somehow_ the box only slips further back. _Double damn_.

A quiet chuckle reaches his ears and Percy spins around. There’s another guy in the aisle – tan, fit, and blond – but Percy couldn’t care less about his physique when the guy is so obviously laughing at him. Percy frowns, blushes.

“Sorry,” the guy says, his blue eyes sparkling. “I’m not making fun of you, just… Maybe I could help?”

Letting out a breath, Percy steps back and makes a grand gesture towards the space he’d vacated. “Please help me get that box on top?” he says, noticing that the other guy is taller than him, with longer limbs, and defined biceps filling out his gray v-neck.

“Alright.” He puts down his own grocery basket – Percy sees mouthwash, Greek yogurt, green apples – and easily picks out the cookie box. “Here,” he presents it to Percy with a grin that scrunches up the scar running down his right cheek.

Percy takes the box somewhat blindly, unable to tear his eyes away from that face. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Yeah.”

“… You’re staring,” the stranger says, amused.

“O-Oh, sorry!” Percy takes a step back just to be sure, his grip on the cookie box tightening.

“Don’t worry,” he assures him. “I get that all the time… It’s the scar, right?”

“Uh, no… not that…” Percy’s brows furrow as the other guy’s brows arches.

“No?”

“No,” Percy repeats. “It’s just… you look familiar.”

“Huh.” He tilts his head, sandy blond hair catching in the fluorescent light so that it resembles gold. He crosses his arms and puts a hand on his mouth, thumb hooked under his chin. “Can’t say I remember you, though. Maybe a name would help? I’m Luke.”

“Percy.”

“Percy… Percy… Hm, no, sorry.” Luke shakes his head. “I don’t think I’ve known any Percys before.”

“How about a… Perseus…?” Percy hazards. The grimace he wears tells enough of how much he hates using his given name.

“Perseus? Your name is _Perseus_?” Luke looks a second away from laughing but then he sees Percy going red and he stops. “That’s cute.”

“I’m new here,” Percy says. “I just moved into the apartment around the corner.” Internally, he berates himself for offering information just because a cute guy called him cute.

“Oh, then welcome to the neighborhood!” Luke picks up his grocery basket. “I could show you around if you’d like.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean. If you’re done shopping.”

“I am.”

“Cool.”

They head to the checkout counter with Luke graciously offering Percy to go first. Percy couldn’t hide his grin if he tried. Luke lives in the apartment across the street and they agree to meet back in front of the convenience store in fifteen minutes.

Percy leaves his groceries on the kitchen table, rushing to his bedroom to spray on some cologne. Sally would’ve reprimanded him for being so haphazard – _you’re supposed to store your groceries first when you get home from shopping, Percy_ – but Sally’s not here right now. So Percy fixes his hair and clothes, pockets his phone, wallet, and keys, and heads out to meet Luke.

 

* * *

 

Percy wipes the snot from his nose on the long sleeves of his shirt. His eyes are puffy and his little legs hang limply off the side of the bench outside the convenience store. Sally had put him in time out after he made a fuss inside, crying like a baby when she refused to get him the chocolate chip cookies.

It’s not fair, he thinks, he’d behaved fairly well on their trip. He deserves a cookie. And just as he thinks that thought, a blue foil packet appears at the edge of his vision.

Percy gasps, little hands grabbing at the cookies before they disappear. The wrapping is cool, a delicious-looking photo of two chocolate chip cookies prominently displayed on the cover. Percy looks up and there’s a boy standing in front of him.

He’s got messy blond hair and a missing tooth but he’s smiling. He’s looking at Percy with eyes as blue as the ocean. “Don’t cry anymore, okay?”

Suddenly, a tall woman comes towards them, her long skirt billowing. “Luke, what are you doing over there?”

“Nothing.” The boy turns towards her so his back is to Percy. Percy can see he’s got two fingers crossed.

“What do you have behind your back?” she asks, sounding tired but amused.

“Nothing,” Luke repeats, showing off his empty palms, but the woman’s eyes have found the cookie packet in Percy’s hands.

Threatened, Percy hugs the cookies to his chest.

“Oh, dear.” May sighs as if she already knows what happened. “Did you give him the cookies, Luke?”

“He was crying!”

“Yes, dear, the whole store heard him, but we didn’t pay for the cookies.” May puts her hand on top of Luke’s head, ruffling his hair. “We don’t take things that aren’t ours.”

“I didn’t do it for me,” Luke defends, pouting.

“Yes, yes, I know you had good intentions, but still.”

Percy watches as mother and son walk back into the convenience store. She’s saying something about apologizing to the cashier when the door swings shut behind them with a cool breeze and jingling chimes. It’s only once they’re gone that Percy realizes he forgot to thank the boy.

**Author's Note:**

> I can still do character development, whoa!  
> See, Luke used to steal cookies but now he gives them around properly~  
> Yay...?
> 
> Thanks for reading~


End file.
